Malfunctioning clockwork
by OtpDrawingWritingThing
Summary: This is a story for my kagehina month (More info about that on my profile). This is set in an AU where everyone have a clock on their arm that counts down to the time they meet their soulmate. And of course our favourite volleydork duo is as dense as ever.
1. Chapter 1

This is the story from day 6 of my kagehina month _(see my profile for more info)._

This is set in an AU _(alternate universe)_ where there's a clock on your arm that counts down to meeting your soulmate. I think I saw something like this AU somewhere on tumblr, but I mainly took it from the movie "in time" and several AUs I read here on ... there's always a lot of soulmate AUs here C:

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The whole team had gathered in the changing room to change from their training clothes to regular school uniforms. Tanaka and Nishinoya talked loudly and excitedly, but if you actually listened to what they were saying you'd understand that they weren't really making much sense most of the time. The third years were quietly listening while changing their attire. They were used to their loud teammates and by now they only half listened to them in order to step in if needed. Tsukishima and yamaguchi were chatting quietly together while changing. Tsukishima had this weird telepathic thing going on in which he always managed to tune in on things he could pick on in other people's conversations while still talking to someone else. Mostly yamaguchi.

Kageyama and hinata was changing silently. Which was odd, because it was a known fact that the two airheads always were at each other's throats. Usually over a small thing or some sort of disagreement they were having that day.

"Hey hinata! Has your clock stopped yet?" Tanaka asked suddenly.

Hinata never really gave it a thought. He hadn't really checked it in years, two years to be exact. He had been too busy with volleyball. Last time he checked it was still ticking, but when he looked down to check it this time, all of the digits were zeroes.

"WHAT!? WHEN DID IT STOP!?" hinata burst out, shocking most of the team out of their own thoughts as their focus was turned towards the source of the loud noise.

"Are you trying to tell me that you haven't paid any attention to it whatsoever?" Tanaka replied in disbelief, looking as though he had heard the most unthinkable thing in the entire world.

"Well, yes, no… I did check it once in a while before, but lately I have been focusing too much on volleyball. But I didn't think…" hinata replied quietly, a blush making itself evident on his cheeks.

"When was the last time you checked it then?" Noya asked curiously. He wanted to find out who hinata's soul mate was, and he liked playing detective whenever he had the chance.

"About… two… years ago… I think…" hinata answered, his voice getting quieter for each word that came out of his mouth. He was feeling very self-conscious and embarrassed right now. Why hadn't he checked the damn clock once in a while?

"TWO YEARS!?" Noya asked in utter disbelief.

"Is it really that surprising? Hinata is one of the biggest airheads in history. Only person I know who can rival him when it comes to stupidity is the king, in fact I bet that he have neglected to check his clock for a while too." Tsukishima said tauntingly.

Kageyama however, did not notice the insult because all he could think of was how long ago it was since he checked his own clock. The dreadful feeling he had after realizing how long it had been since he had checked it made him stiffen visibly.

The whole room was quiet when they saw kageyama's reaction and realized that the previous statement was spot on.

"You… really? Is there no end to you two's stupidity?" tsukishima asked disbelievingly. He hadn't actually thought that he was right. He had just said it in hopes of riling kageyama up.

"I-I don't…" kageyama started but couldn't make himself finish the sentence, in fact he wasn't really sure what he was planning to say in the first place.

"So how long since you checked yours?" Tanaka asked, slightly dreading the answer. He just hoped that it didn't exceed hinata's two years.

"Teanahafyes" kageyama muttered so quietly that it would take a miracle for anyone to actually understand what he had said. No one had seen kageyama's cheeks this red before, which could only mean one thing…

"WHAT!?" hinata shouted, his eyes wide and mouth open. He looked really shocked.

"You could understand that!? Shoyo are you actually superman?" Noya asked disbelievingly.

"You couldn't?" hinata replied, asking the shorter boy in return.

"I don't think anyone here understood that except you." Sugawara said, smiling gently.

"Oh… well he just said three and a half years!" hinata replied.

And then the whole room got quiet again, this time everyone had suspected that it was bad, but not THAT bad. Three and a half years? How could anyone discard their clock like that? Didn't those two care at all about who their soul mate was?

"You should really check your clock…" hinata said quietly, efficiently breaking the pressing silence.

"Yeah! How do you know that yours hasn't stopped too?" Tanaka asked.

"I uh, okay…" kageyama answered awkwardly. He did NOT appreciate this situation. At ALL.

Everyone stood in silent anticipation while the setter rolled up his sleeve to finally check his clock.

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I know it's a criminally short chapter _(and the rest of them are probably going to be just as short...)_ , but I made two chapter for this day of my kagehina month _(in my defence)._

And as I said in my other fanfic _(kagehina: "I think...")_ , I won't continue this story unless I get feedback _(This counts for all of my kagehina month entries)._


	2. Chapter 2

"It… it's not… when did it?" kageyama said quietly, slightly shocked at the fact that it actually had stopped.

"Really? I wonder who our soul mates are…" hinata said just as quietly.

"You two only have yourselves to blame you know… you should have checked it at least once a month... most people check it every day…" Daichi said sternly.

"What are we supposed to do now? I'll never know who my soul mate is…" hinata said, his voice and expression a fine mix between sadness and desperation.

"Don't worry about it, I have something… just wait a few seconds." Sugawara said calmly, giving them a reassuring smile before going through his locker. After searching for a little while he found what he was looking for.

"Here. Take one of these." Sugawara said as he handed over a pill to hinata.

"A- What is this?" hinata asked curiously, inspecting the small white pill in the palm of his hand.

"It's a pill that allows you to 'meet' your soul mate again. When you take it your clock will go up to one second, and when you look at your soul mate it goes back to zero again." Sugawara explained.

"Whoa! REALLY!?" hinata asked in disbelief while looking at the pill as if it was some sort of sacred serum that could solve world problems.

"Yeah. Go ahead, try it." Sugawara said encouragingly.

Hinata looked at the pill for nearly a minute before swallowing it. He didn't feel any different, but he never the less watched his clock with hopeful excitement.

Then the last zero on his clock changed into a one just as sugawara had said.

"ooOOOoo! It worked!" hinata said as he nearly bounced with excitement where he stood.

He then looked up at sugawara with an extremely happy expression while saying that sugawara-senpai was the best.

"Hey kageyama! Are you going to try it too?" hinata said excitedly, but as he looked at the setter he noticed something in the corner of his eye. And when he looked down at his clock his suspicion was confirmed. It had changed back…

WHAT!? Hinata's thoughts were a complete mess. Kageyama was his soul mate!?

"I don't kno-" kageyama started saying as a reply, but he was interrupted by hinata as he looked at him with huge disbelieving and shocked eyes.

"IT WENT BACK! OH MY GOD DOES THAT MEAN THAT KAGEYAMA IS MY SOUL MATE!?" hinata shouted, panicking.

And then the room was filled with a suffocating silence again, while the team took in what the smaller teen just said.

"What? WHAT!? NO IT CAN'T BE! SUGAWARA PLEASE GIVE ME ONE OF THOSE PILLS!" kageyama screamed, he could feel his cheeks burning, and he knew that he couldn't get any more red than he was right now. And hinata was in the same situation as him he noted subconsciously.

"Y-Yeah. Here…" sugawara said bewildered, not sure what to say or do in this situation.

"Thank you!" kageyama said before taking the pill from sugawara's unsteady hands. He then swallowed it and quickly turned to watch his clock.

"It has got to be some sort of dysfunction…" kageyama half whispers to himself, trying to reassure himself slightly.

And when the clock shows 1 at the end of his clock signalizing that it worked, he slowly looks up at the orange haired middle blocker, being careful not to look at anyone else before looking back down at his clock again.

Shit…

"It… it really did… NO… it's obviously some sort of malfunction that has something to do with time… sugawara-san can I get another one?" kageyama asks, denying the fact before him with a passion.

"Yeah I guess, but I don't really see the point." Sugawara replies, before giving his fellow setter another pill.

Kageyama gives a small thank you and gathers up all his stuff before heading towards class.

The rest of the team ends up standing in the changing room in complete silence as they try to sort out their thoughts. Most of them still pretty shocked over the events that just recently occurred right in front of them. The first person to get himself out of his thoughts is tsukishima as he picks up his things and walks out of the changing room, a half present, still slightly lost in thought yamaguchi in tow.

And that was all the rest of them needed in order to snap themselves out of the trance like state they had previously been in as they all pack up their things and heads towards class.

Hinata however needed a little more time as his thoughts were still racing rapidly through his mind, but he never the less gathered his things and stepped outside at the same time as everyone else. His body was practically moving on autopilot as his mind was too engulfed in processing the previous happenings.

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And again: I know it's a criminally short chapter _(and the rest of them are probably going to be just as short...)_ , but I DID make two chapters for this day of my kagehina month!

And as I said in my other fanfic _(kagehina: "I think...")_ , and in chapter 1 of this fanfic; I won't continue this story unless I get feedback _(This counts for all of my kagehina month entries)._

Which means: there will not be any more chapters for this story unless you, yes **YOU** , ask me to continue it in some way.

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This fanfic will get another chapter thanks to your reviews C:


	3. Chapter 3

Okay... so it took a while for me to be able to actually get back to this (I've dropped out of this pairing/series a little, and I'm currently pretty deeply into another pairing/series... so... I'm sorry if this seems... Idk, bad?) but I couldn't just abandon you guys, I mean you gave me so much feedback and encouraging words... and so I'm back...

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The rest of the day kageyama avoided all the places he knew Hinata frequented, in order to check if the pills had some sort of fault connected to time. He genuinely believed that the pills had some sort of malfunction. The fact that both of the only two people that had tried the pills (that he knew of) had their clock stop after nearly the same amount of time was too much of a coincidence.

Kageyama never really considered the possibility that he might meet his soulmate before he was finished with school, in fact, he had thought that he was going to meet his soulmate for the first time much later in life. He never really had time for romantic relations, or other relations for that matter, all he really had time for was volleyball. He figured that he'd check his clock when he was done with his schooling, and then start thinking about soulmates and stuff like that.

Or that's what he had initially thought...

And besides...

Hinata couldn't really be his soulmate, right?

Hinata was... well, Hinata. He was a goofy teenager that gave it his all during their matches and training. He was easily excited and riled up, and just as easily frightened and had a really weak stomach at times. He had his heart on display, always showing everyone how he felt at all times. Hinata was a force of nature that nobody could sway away from what he had set his eyes on, but at the same time a really warm and comfortable person that was easy to get to know, easy to befriend. He also rivalled Kageyama's own intense love for volleyball.

Hinata was, he was...

He was a teammate, the first teammate Kageyama had become friends with, actually... The first person that felt like a real teammate to Kageyama, the first person that had considered him a real teammate too... a friend...

The first person Kageyama actually wanted to be close to.

But if Hinata really was his soulmate then... that would change everything.

Would they still be friends? Would things suddenly become more awkward? Was Hinata going to stop acting the way he usually does around Kageyama?

Kageyama decided that Hinata couldn't be his soulmate, because that could endanger their current relationship, it could change it, maybe even break it. The relationship he had with Hinata was too precious to Kageyama for him to let it be ruined by something like this.

So Hinata couldn't be his soulmate.

Besides, Kageyama didn't harbour those kinds of feeling for Hinata. Or well, at least he didn't think he did, again, he never really gave it much thought.

Hinata was just a teammate, a friend, right? Kageyama didn't think there was more to it than that, but...

Hinata wasn't just a regular friend either, now that he thought about it. Because Hinata was... he felt closer to Hinata than any of his other teammates/friends.

Hinata was...

He didn't even know what Hinata was to him anymore, and he didn't want to think about it.

So he stopped and started focusing on checking in on his clock frequently to see if it'd stop again when Hinata wasn't around.

He didn't want to see Hinata again yet, because he wanted to be completely sure that it was a malfunction and not the certain end of their friendship. A friendship that Kageyama had just realised meant the world to him, that had become a grounding stability in his life.

Kageyama knew that he couldn't avoid Hinata forever though, he knew that they'd meet at practice. And school was nearly over... Kageyama started feeling panicked, he just couldn't see Hinata yet, couldn't meet him. What if the clock actually didn't malfunction? What if Hinata really was his soulmate? Kageyama couldn't deal with this, not now, probably not ever...

So Kageyama made up his mind to do the unthinkable...

He was going to skip practice.

Just this once... That would give him more time to test his theory, and that would give him more time to think things through, to come up with a plan on how to save their relat- Friendship... to save their Friendship... Kageyama would go over all the details over the weekend, and then come up with a plan, and if his clock actually... if on monday his clock went from one to zero when he saw Hinata again, then he'd have a plan to fix things, to make everything alright.

Or so he hoped...

And so Kageyama actually skipped practice for the first time in his life (for Hinata's sake, his mind subtly added), and went home.

During the entire walk home Kageyama thought about his current problems, and he never stopped thinking. Not during dinner, not during the rest of the day, Kageyama even got less sleep than usual because he was thinking too much. He started thinking about it when he woke up, and he continued to think about it during the entire day. It felt like time was flowing by too quickly for Kageyama, he just didn't have enough time, he needed more.

And so when the next day came, and it was time for Kageyama to go to school, he called in sick...

And yes, Kageyama was aware that he had said only once, but he just needed a little more time to think things through. Just one more day.

Kageyama spent the entire day thinking about his problems, but still couldn't get anywhere. There just didn't seem like he could come up with a way for them to be soulmates and keep their friendship, and he couldn't deal with that, he couldn't deal with losing Hinata.

Kageyama was so deeply in thought that he nearly didn't notice the sound of the doorbell. That was weird, probably just his father that forgot to bring his keys again. Kageyama saw his father's keys in the bowl by the door and sighed. When was his father going to stop forgetting his keys?

Kageyama was so sure that it had been his father that he opened the front door without even looking at the person behind the door.

"Hey..." Kageyama heard a hesitant voice say, and he felt himself freeze up when he realised who that voice belonged to. He slowly turned around and sure enough there he was, what was Hinata doing here?

Kageyama's head was a mess that couldn't form any kind of coherent sentence at the moment, so he ended up awkwardly standing there in front of the doorway, staring at Hinata. That was until he remembered the clock. He wasn't really all that surprised to find that it had gone back down to zero, and he felt something drop in his stomach.

Hinata really was his soulmate...

And Kageyama's panicked mind supplied that this could only mean that everything they had up until that moment was going to crumble and fall apart.

"Kageyama? Hey, are you alright?" Hinata asked when he didn't get any other reaction from the other teen.

"I, yeah, no I'm... don't know..." Kageyama said, cursing his brain for not being able to talk properly. He shook himself out of his dazed and current mess of a head, before he continued. "What are you doing here Hinata?"

"I came to check on you... and I came to..." Hinata started, but he seemed to ponder how to word his next words as if they could change the fate of the world. After Hinata had been looking at the ground for what seemed like an eternity for Kageyama, the shorter teen looked up and directly into Kageyama's eyes.

"I came to tell you that we can forget about the whole soulmate thing, and just pretend it never happened, just... just don't skip practice..." Hinata said with a determination that definitively reached his eyes, just like all the emotions Hinata displayed. After a little while his eyes softened as he said a small please.

"I... okay" Kageyama said slowly, not really processing what he had agreed to.

"Okay... okay, great! See you at practice tomorrow!" Hinata said hurriedly before turning around and sprinting away from Kageyama's house, probably to go home.

Kageyama wouldn't truly have what had happened entirely processed before he was making his way to school the next day.

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So... as I said, I'm currently not that invested in this fandom... and so if you guys want me to continue this/finish it (even though the way I write this will probably change a lot), then I need constant reassurance that you want it... because I need to know that people still want more, even if my way of writing this changes, even if I'll probably make some mistakes because I won't remember certain things...

So yeah...

Tell me if you want me to continue this or not (and it really isn't that much of a bother for me to continue it, I mean this chapter took me like no time at all to write... it's just that it takes a little out of me to actually make myself start something/start doing something...)


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